


Welcome to the Show

by the_nerdiest_insanity



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Additional Warnings In Author's Note, Ambiguous Relationships, Angst, Arachnophobia, Blindness, Body Horror, Claustrophobia, Crying, Deaf, Gen, Heavy Angst, Humiliation, I give them a good reason, Kinda, M/M, Near Death Experiences, Nyctophobia, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Paranoia, Percy Jackson References, Post-Episode: Putting Others First - Selfishness v. Selflessness Redux | Sanders Sides, Psychological Torture, Self-Hatred, Swearing, Tags Contain Spoilers, Unsympathetic Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders, Unsympathetic Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders, but they're jerks, one of these things is not like the others lol, relationships can be plationic or romantic, so don't read on if you don't want spoilers, sorta - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-18
Updated: 2020-08-27
Packaged: 2021-03-05 20:54:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 11,675
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25981681
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_nerdiest_insanity/pseuds/the_nerdiest_insanity
Summary: Roman runs off to the woods after Putting Others First for some time to think. When Remus stumbles upon him with an idea on how to get revenge, well, what is Creativity without it's other half?The others finally find the twins, but something's different about their local prince. Is it too late for him? Will the others survive the ringer the two are going to put them through? Most importantly, will they ever be the same?Let's play a game.
Relationships: Anxiety | Virgil & Creativity | Roman & Deceit & Logic | Logan & Morality | Patton & Thomas Sanders, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders & Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders & Deceit | Janus Sanders, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders & Deceit | Janus Sanders & Morality | Patton Sanders, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders & Logic | Logan Sanders, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders & Morality | Patton Sanders, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders/Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders/Deceit | Janus Sanders, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders/Logic | Logan Sanders, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders/Morality | Patton Sanders, Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders & Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders, Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders & Deceit | Janus Sanders, Deceit | Janus Sanders & Morality | Patton Sanders, Deceit | Janus Sanders/Morality | Patton Sanders
Comments: 25
Kudos: 56





	1. Like It Or Not

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I got this idea listening to the song Like It Or Not (here- https://youtu.be/OI0AhEe3z90) and it's just spiralled from there.
> 
> This is my first work for this fandom, so I really hope people like it!
> 
> I don't typically write this angsty and I have another SS fic in the works that is just pure fluff. That one is just a one-shot that I haven't finished yet and I'm almost done with this one already.
> 
> Hope you enjoy!
> 
> (TW: swearing, weapons *not used on people, but mentioned,* kinda mentions of abandonment, self deprecating thoughts *minor,* attempted violence, the word “blood,” but used as a description)

"We love you."

"Right."

He just needs some time to think. He just needs to be away from the others. That's what he keeps telling himself as he heads deeper and deeper into the Imagination.

And the more lost he gets.

Roman screamed at the sky before hacking wildly at the trees around him with his sword. Once he was out of energy, he slumped down on the nearest tree to take a breath.

Sadly, that meant that all of his problems were brought back to his attention. 

He groaned as he ground his palms into his eyes, as though he could push the thoughts out.

Until, the prince hears footsteps and branches snapping.

He quickly draws his sword and readies his stance. While nothing in this part of the Imagination should hurt him and the others have no reason to either, one can never be too careful.

Yet he relaxes, just slightly, at a familiar voice saying, "Unless you want that sword up your ass, I'd suggest putting it down."

Roman rolls his eyes as he watches his brother emerge from the surrounding trees. "And why should I put it down? Last time I saw you, you laid me out with your morning star."

Remus snickers and says, "That was just a little show for dear old Thomas. You certainly know all about that?"

The red brother sighs and sits back down again. "So what brings you to the Imagination, my tentacled twin?"

Remus plunks down next to him before responding. "Deceit asked me to keep purple people hater busy while he did some dirty work, so we went on a little adventure. I lost him here somewhere. He's probably fine."

"Ugh, don't remind me of him," Roman sneared.

"Who? Virgil?"

"No! Deceit! Or Janus! Or that reptilian rapscallion! Whatever you want to call him!"

"Woah, woah, woah, time out. Back up. Janus told you his name?"

"Yeah. He wanted Thomas to trust him and it worked too." Roman curled his knees up to his chest and hid part of his face in his arms. "He ever turned Thomas against me."

"That bitch!" the green side yelled, startling his brother, "First, he promised that he'd make sure we'd get accepted together or not at all, and then he makes my brother feel like shit! Oh, he's gonna pay."

“Tch, good luck,” Roman mutters, losing interest, knowing that once his brother sets his mind on revenge, nothing can sway him.

He looks up, however, when he doesn’t hear the usual sounds of crazed rambling and sees a hand come into his line of sight. “Wait, Wha--?”

Remus smirks. “He wronged us both, and I can’t do what I have in mind without my other half. What do you say?”

While the twins weren’t on as bad of terms as they seemed in the videos, they never had a great relationship either. Roman wouldn’t have ever expected anything like this from the other. He didn’t know what to say.

But he knew what to do.

He grabbed Remus’s hand.

…

They should have checked on him sooner.

Patton had wanted to. He had tried too, but Janus and Logan were against it. Well, Logan thought that he might still want some room, after the logical side started speaking to the others again.

Patton really regretted the way he treated everyone last episode.

Janus has been helping him get through his feelings and assisting with damage control, but there is only so much you can apologize for.

So, here the three of them were, searching through the Imagination, looking for the lost prince. They haven’t seen him in a few days now.

“Roman!” Janus called.

“Roman, we just want to talk!” Logan yelled.

“Roman!” Patton shouted.

“Roman, are you here kiddo!”

“Roman, I’m sorry!” he screamed.

Janus put a hand on his shoulder as he deflated. “We’ll find him Patton. It’s not like he’s _dramatic_ or anything and would do something like this for attention.”

Pat sighed. “I know, but this is my fault. I should have seen the signs earlier and I should have gone after him before and--”

“Hey, now,” the other interrupted, “what have we talked about not blaming yourself for everything and not dwelling on things that can’t be changed?”

“I know, I know,” the moral side responded tiredly, but looked slightly better, so both took it as a win.

“Son of a bitch!” The search party startles and whips around towards the noise. A very disheveled Virgil tumbles out of the woods.

“Virgil!” The trio identifies before rushing over to his side. “Kiddo, what happened?” Patton asks.

“Remus happened,” Virgil spits as the three pick him up and dust him off, “He said that he wanted to take me on an ‘adventure,’ and even though I said hell no, he grabbed me anyway. He led me winding and twisting through his half of the Imagination until all of a sudden he wasn’t in front of me for some reason. He’d ditched me to fend for myself. I’ve been looking for my way out since.”

Janus winced before Patton said, “That sounds awful! We just thought you were having a tough time because of all of the stress Thomas was under with all the crazy stuff going on. Whenever we checked on your room, obviously you didn’t answer, but the door was locked, so we couldn’t check to see if you were in there or not. We just thought you were getting food and stuff at night. I’m so sorry.”

Virgil shrugged it off. “It’s fine. You guys couldn’t have known, but what’s up with Thomas? What ‘crazy stuff’ is going on?”

Logan looked at the anxious side curiously, “How long have you been here?”

“I’m not sure. Time works differently here. Could’ve been a few hours, could’ve been a week. Why?”

“I’m aware. Let me try this, what was the last video we filmed?”

“ _Are There Healthy Distractions?_ ”

Janus, again, winced, but this time, Virgil noticed.

“ _You!_ ”

Patton held Virgil back as he spat out profanities and threats while Logan calmly asked, “Janus, did you have anything to do with Virgil’s… incident?”

“Janus!? You told them your goddamn name, you bastard!”

“Well,” Janus started, “I only asked Remus to keep Virgil occupied while I… _helped_ with the video. I never asked him to ditch Virgil in the woods!”

“You should have realized that the psycho would do anything to hurt me after I left, bitch!”

“Yes, _thank you_ Virgil. _Of course_ I was thinking that my _last_ friend would _take advantage_ of me. I should have realized that _hisssstory repeatssss_.”

VIrgil stopped struggling after that. “Janus. You know I didn’t mean it like that.”

“It’ssss fine,” he replied shortly. “Let’sss just find Roman and get out of here.” He turned on his heals and walked in the direction they had been going.

The anxious side’s eyes widened as he turned towards the fatherly side. “What happened to Roman?”

Patton looked at the ground as he played with the hoodie sleeves around his neck. “I’ll explain as we walk.”

…

The newly formed quartet stood at the foot of Roman’s castle.

“And you’re sure he’s in there?” Janus asked Logan.

“I am 89--”

“Never tell me the odds,” Virgil interrupted. Patton giggled and Logan frowned at him.

The deceitful side just sighed. “Alright. Let’s do this then.”

The group creaked the heavy oak doors open into a pitch black room.

“Roman?” Patton called before the doors slammed closed behind them.

In front of the pack, a screen crackles to life.

“Welcome to the show.”

They see Roman, but he looks different. Instead of the pristine white of his usual princely attire, it’s inky black. Even his sash is more blood red than candy apple. He has a gilded and garnet encrusted crown resting on his head.

“And like it or not it’s time to play a game.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What did you think? I'll try to post the next chapter tomorrow because I'm about as impatient as you probably are and after that maybe twice a week? Every few days? I'll figure it out.
> 
> Next time: What's up with Roman? And how are the others going to react? Also, the twin's plan is set in motion.
> 
> I just want to thank you again for reading and hope you come back again! Please give me any and all sorts of feedback, positive or negative, I truly just want to improve my writing. Stay safe guys, gals, and non-binary pals!


	2. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, You Think You Can Survive

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The sides get to talk to Roman and the twin's game begins.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay! People seem to like this!
> 
> Thank you so much for the comments! The give me fuel to keep posting, and I'm surprisingly excited about this one.
> 
> I hope this is as good as the last one. This where we start getting into the *juicy stuff* and it gets really dark and angsty, so you've been warned.
> 
> (TW: mind control/manipulation implications *didn’t actually happen,* vomit *nondescript as in just the word,* arachnophobia, school humiliation/being laughed at, kinda body horror, claustrophobia, nyctophobia *minimal,* paranoia *minimal,* helplessness, psychological torture, stuttering)

“...it’s time to play a game.”

“Let’s play a game.”

Remus joins him on screen looking as vile as ever except he has a matching crown covered in silver and emeralds.

_You._ “Give Roman back to us, **now**!” Virgil added some tempest tongue onto the end for effect, but at the same time he was trying to keep it from dripping into every word.

The green side grew a cheshire grin. “My dear Virgie,” he growled at the kickname, “he came here completely on his own. Isn’t that right, my lovely brother?”

Roman grew a horrifyingly matching grin. “You’re absolutely right, my fantastical brother.”

Virgil refused to believe that. He stared at the two, looking for something that might make sense of this. The crowns! “Roman! Take off the crown! He’s mind controlling you or something! Please get rid of it!”

The prince shrugged and removed the crown. Very slowly his face morphed into one of realization. Virgil got through to him! “You didn’t tell me that this would ruin my perfect hair.” Roman pouted.

Remus just shrugged. “I didn’t know, besides, we both know it was already ruined.”

Both brothers started to laugh as the red one playfully shoved the other.

Virgil couldn’t believe his eyes. This isn’t happening. He passed out in the Imagination somewhere and this was just a horrible nightmare. Right?

He pinched himself, hard. He felt it and took a few steps back. Well, sometimes you can still feel pain in a dream. Plus, it was getting blurry, that had to mean he was waking up. Except, when he went to rub his eyes, they were wet. You can’t cry in a dream.

Virge looked towards the others, completely lost, but they weren’t faring any better. Janus looked equal parts horrified and angry. Patton looked horrified as well, but also sad. And Logan, surprisingly looked just confused but slightly misty eyed.

Virgil had to put a stop to the madness. “That’s it!” he yelled at the screen, “I’m going to go find you and I’m going to bring you home!” He practically stomped and looked for a way through this place.

“We don’t want you to go,” the screen called. He turned to face another pair of sickening grins. “‘Cause like it or not you’ll never feel the same.”

A pounding feeling shot through his head. It hurt so bad that his ears started to ring, or maybe it came with the pounding, he wasn’t sure. Virgil was almost doubled over in pain. He looked over at the others and they were as well, clutching their heads.

“Let’s play a game.”

Another wave came through and he was on the floor. He was trying to hold himself up on his hands and knees, but even that was almost too hard. In his peripheral he could see that Patton was already out with Logan not too far behind. Janus was doing about as well as Virgil, but was also barely holding on. They exchanged glances before the final blow.

_“Let’s play it!”_

…

The first thing Patton did after waking up was vomit.

Whatever the twins used to knock the sides out did quite the number on him.

Once he was finally able to breathe and stand up, he took in his surroundings. 

Surprisingly, it looked just like Thomas’s living room.

He wondered why they would send him here, when he saw something move in the shadows.

Hoping that his mind was playing tricks on him, Patton explored other parts of the room first. Until he started seeing more things moving. “O-O-kay guys,” he said, taking to the ceiling, “Very funny. Scare ol’ pops with a few light tricks. N-nice one.”

He was standing in the middle of the carpet, looking around the room, hoping that a door would unlock or something. In his searching before, he found that all of the doors were either locked or just didn’t exist anymore.

Patton heard a noise and whipped around. It had apparently been coming from the couch. He let out a sigh of relief. He leaned over before saying “I know you’re back there, kiddo. You can come out now.”

All of a sudden, a shadow of spiders emerges from the couch and directly toward the only person in the room.

Pat turns as white as a sheet. “...creepy… crawly… deATH **DEALERS**!”

…

Logan awoke with a start.

“Logan, are you okay?” Patton asked as he took his hand off of his shoulder.

He looked at his surroundings. It appears as though he was in some sort of classroom setting; however Patton, Roman, Virgil, Remus, and Janus were all a part of the class. That raises the question--

“Mr. Sanders, it’s your turn to present.” Ah, so Thomas was the teacher in this scenario. Very well.

“Coming right up, sir.” Logan grabbed the stack of notecards off of his desk even though, based on how these mock situations typically play out, he won’t need them, or they will be blank.

He got right up to the podium and got himself situated. He looked down at his notes and was surprised to find that it was actually from one of the last speeches Thomas ever gave in class and Logan still had it almost completely memorized.

He looked down, assuming that, at the very least he would be in some embarrassing state of undress, but he was wearing his usual clothes.

Unsure about how this would go, he decided that he would just give this speech like he did the first time around.

And Logan was doing great. He figured Roman was mad at them and was trying to do something bad to them, but nothing was going wrong.

Until he started to notice the audience. Almost no one was paying attention to him or the speech. They were talking amongst themselves or on their phones or doing other things to occupy themselves.

He looked over at the other sides because surely they were paying attention, but no. Not a single one was paying attention to him or what he was saying.

Well, Thomas would pay attention. If anything, he would since he is the teacher. And yet, he’s on his phone, most likely playing _Word Crush_. He doesn’t even have the effort to figure out the probability. 

In his sadness, Logan messes up a bit. It’s not too bad, but it embarrassed him slightly.

Then he hears it. Back from where the other sides are sitting, he hears someone laugh at him.

He can tell it’s at him. Nobody has laughed yet and this was obviously intentional.

Logan shrinks in on himself, but carries on before he makes another mistake. He hears more laughter.

He presses on. He just has to get through this and it’ll be over. Except, wasn’t the speech already supposed to end? And Logan doesn’t remember this part of the presentation the first time around. 

He tries to move from the podium, but his legs refuse to move.

He stops talking, yet that just makes people laugh at him more. 

He looks at those that he typically calls his friends, but they are just twisted versions of them now. Except, are they that different? How often does he have to fight to be heard or tell them to take him seriously?

Logan shakes his head. This is exactly what the twins are trying to do to you. Don’t play into their hands. Yet, what can you do? 

He doesn’t think he can logic his way out of this one.

…

Janus groans clutching his head and face. Those two really didn’t hold back.

He does figure he deserves it for what he did to the twins. In reality, he knows that neither of them are evil and he actually cares about them both even if he won’t admit it.

He freezes.

His face feels slightly different under his gloves.

His breathing and heart rate pick up. He debates taking off his gloves to feel for himself when he raises his head and comes face to face with his reflection.

Janus jumps and scrambles backwards until his back hits the next wall. He turns around to avoid staring at his reflection, only to be met with another mirror.

This causes him to jump to his feet in a panic as he looks all around him just to realize that he is surrounded by mirrors.

He backs into a corner and slides down to the floor, shielding his face with his hat.

He looks down only to be met with one more mirror with a giant note written across it.

As the now fully snake faced side stares at the floor, he reads:

“Now the outside matches the monster within”

…

Virgil wakes in a panic, but that’s nothing new for the anxious side.

What is new is being in some lightless room that doesn’t appear to have an exit.

That does nothing to help the rising panic.

Virgil blindly feels around the area and determines that it is roughly a square with a ceiling about a foot above his head and the sides are bigger than his wingspan but not by much.

“Hello?” The only response is an echo.

“Roman?”

“Patton?”

“Janus?”

“Logan?”

“Remus?”

“Anyone?”

His breathing shallows a bit. Wait, what if he has limited oxygen? 

Maybe he isn’t yelling loud enough. Should he try knocking on the walls? 

Maybe they aren’t even looking for him. 

Is the box getting smaller?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And this is only the beginning for them.
> 
> My plan is to post this weekend; however, I have to work and I am moving into college for the first time! Yay! So, I'm not sure if I'll be able to actually so that. I'll see if I can maybe post sometime this week, but I want to make sure that I have chapter 4 finished and edited first before I post it. If worst comes to worst, I'll post it Monday.
> 
> Sorry that I can't give you a solid posting schedule. This probably wasn't the best time to start this, but I just couldn't sit on it any longer. And I felt bad for not posting anything in so long.
> 
> Anyway, next time: How are the sides going to handle their own personal hells? Can they even handle them? Will they crack under pressure? And more of the twin's plan gets revealed.
> 
> I just want to thank you once more for reading this and hope you come back! Please give me any and all sorts of feedback, positive or negative, I truly just want to improve my writing. Stay safe guys, gals, and non-binary pals!


	3. This Is All A Lie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A few of our party members figure out some disheartening information.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I wasn't sure when I'd post again, but, honestly, all of your amazing comments gave me a rush of inspiration! I'm actually already writing chapter six currently.
> 
> I really hope that you're all still enjoying this. This has been my favorite multi chapter fic that I've worked on so far.
> 
> (TW: psychological torture, almost a panic attack, little self-hatred, violence *property damage, not people,* arachnophobia, kinda explosions, crying, blindness, deafness, loss of temper *minor,* helplessness, stuttering)

Roman and Remus laugh at the monitor as they watch the other sides flounder through their punishments.

"I've got to hand it to you," Remus says, "your little phycological torture with Logan was a stroke of genius!"

"Aww, thanks," Roman said preening under the praise, "and putting ol' snake face in a hall of mirrors after transforming him was brilliant!"

"Well, your note of the ground seemed to really _rattle_ him to his core!"

They laugh again as they go back to watching and see if the others have figured out yet that this is just the first half.

…

Janus shook with unshed tears as he tried to get his breathing under control.

He knew that the other’s needed him. 

He was self-preservation for heaven’s sake! He could do this.

Carefully, avoiding looking at the floor, he stood up and raised his head, staring his worst nightmare dead on. His eyes snapped shut. 

_Breath in for four seconds. Hold for seven. Release for eight._

_It’s just an illusion._

_It’s a_ **_lie_** _._

_The twin’s created this specifically to mess with you._

_Don’t let them win._

Janus’s breathing finally evened out enough that his chest didn’t feel like it was collapsing in on itself.

He slowly opened his eyes, focusing on his surroundings and not his reflection. That’s when he noticed that he wasn’t trapped in a singular room. There appeared to be a small hallway slightly off to his right.

The deceitful side immediately took off down the hall before crashing into yet another mirror. Of course. He should have realized that Remus would come up with trapping him in a hall of mirrors with his worst fear; however, he had hoped that his longest friend wouldn’t be so cruel.

Guess he was wrong about everything. Yet again.

He sighed as he backed up slightly to figure out the next direction to turn.

After a few more minutes of twists and turns, slamming into mirror after mirror, Janus had had enough.

“You like messing with the rules, don’t you Remus?” he muttered to know one in particular, but he had a feeling the little masterminds were listening. 

He reached into his cape, retrieving his cane, then lined it up with the center of the nearest mirror. “While I do love this, I’m going to make my own way out of your little ‘game.’”

He pulled the cane back before striking the mirror with all the force and energy he could put into it.

Thankfully, the mirror shattered. He would take any and all bad luck that would come his way if it meant he could get out of that wretched place.

Carefully maneuvering around the shattered pieces, Janus stepped into a giant room. It looked like how he would assume any other room in the castle would look based on the entrance’s appearance.

The odd thing was that from the wall behind him, three black box-like shapes were jutting out of it next to the one he just came from.

He didn’t have much time to dwell on them when he heard a scream come from the farthest box. That almost sounded like…

“Patton,” he breathed before taking off for the box.

…

Patton ran as fast as he could away from those… those… _things_.

He took off up the stairs and tried to barricade himself in Thomas’s bedroom. He locked the door and stuffed blankets and pillows between every crack from the door to the frame that he could find.

Sighing, he sat down on the newly stripped bed and admired his handiwork. Nothing could get past that.

Then, what just ran under the bed?

Patton jumped on top of the mattress right before hundreds more spiders poured out from under it. His eyes began to water as he screamed at the top of his lungs. 

“Janus! Virgil! Logan! Someone please!” he yelled as best as he could through the tears.

The spiders were creeping around him and starting to encircle him.

“Patton! Patton, are you there?” comes muffled through the wall to his left. Thank everything!

“Yes! Yes, I’m here! P-please hurry! S-so many spiders…” he responded, trailing off near the end. The terrifying creatures were closing in now, and he didn’t know how much more he could take.

“It’s gonna be okay; however, I’m gonna have to break down the wall, so back up if you can,” the person behind the wall calmly replied.

Actually, he couldn’t. The spiders were too close and too thick now to move much if at all. Patton didn’t even want to speak.

From his left he can hear someone grunting like they are preparing to swing a baseball bat, so he at least uses his arms to try to shield his head before a powerful slam knocks down the wall and sends the spiders scattering.

Patton, delightedly almost completely unharmed, turned towards his rescuer. “Janus,” he breaths.

The other smiles. “Patton.” He opens his arms for the typically more physically affectionate side.

After his horrible experience, he is more than happy for a hug.

Patton runs into the other’s arms… and never feels them.

All of a sudden he’s on the cold, hard ground with his eyes closed.

“Janus?” he asks, but he doesn’t hear his own voice. Strange. Maybe he hit his head too hard.

He pushes himself up and rubs his eyes before opening them.

Except, everything is still black.

He closes his eyes, _hard_ , and opens them again, yet still doesn’t see anything.

He grinds the heels of his hands into his eyes and tries opening them once more. Just darkness.

“Janus? Where are you?” he calls at least, he thinks he does. He still can’t hear anything.

He walks towards the direction he last saw the other side in before tripping on something and falling face first onto the stone ground once more.

“Janus, please help me. Where are you?” he pleads. 

He knows he is actually saying these things. He can still feel the vibrations in his throat forming the words. 

Just like how he feels the tears streaming down his face, even if he can’t see them.

…

“It’s gonna be okay; however, I’m gonna have to break down the wall, so back up if you can.”

Janus was gonna see if his cane could pull off the same trick twice. It was the quickest solution he could think of, especially since he’s pretty sure he heard that Patton was trapped in there with _spiders_ of all things! Those twins really could be monsters.

He reeled the cane back once more before striking the wall with everything he could. He was so relieved when it collapsed.

He was greeted with one of the most relieved and sweetest smiles he had ever seen. “Janus,” he breathed.

He smiled back. “Patton.” He opened his arms knowing that the other would want a hug and that he wants one too, even if he wouldn’t admit it.

The moral side charged towards his arms, yet just before they connected, he disappeared.

“Patton?” He looked around and saw the other was halfway across the room from him and laying on the ground.

“Did you really think it would be that easy?”

The snakely side scowled and turned towards the sound of a familiar, princely voice only to be greeted by the plotting pair themselves.

“What did you do to Patton?” he asked coldly.

Remus smirked before responding, “Remember how _Percy Jackson_ started Thomas’s fascination with mythology?”

“More or less,” he replied through gritted teeth.

“And do you remember that there was a _very_ interesting sequel series called the _Heroes of Olympus_ where Percy and Annabeth are stuck in Tartarus?” Roman continued.

“Not really. It’s been a while and I’ve had more important things to think about, like the point of this conversation,” Janus was ready to bite their heads off.

The prince pouted while the duke leaned over and fake whispered, “I told you he’s no fun.”

“Just tell me what happened to Patton!” he snapped.

“Temper, temper,” Remus tsked.

“If you don’t remember, you’ll figure it out soon enough,” Roman added with a sick smile. With that, Remus threw some green powder on him leaving him coughing as the two vanished as quickly as they came.

Janus shook his head in an attempt to rid it of the last of the powder before making his way towards the only other side left.

“That wasn’t very helpful.” 

He froze in his tracks. He meant to sarcastically say that it _was_ helpful. Strange. A few flecks of green flutter down from his hair. Did Remus… No. He didn’t because he wasn’t even going to think about that. He had to worry about the side now weakly calling out of him.

“It’s okay Patton, I’m here,” he said calmly trying to sooth the agitated side.

All of a sudden, Patton stands up and quickly walks away from him before tripping over his own feet.

Janus runs up to try and comfort him only for him to disappear when the two are within a few feet of each other.

He rapidly whips his head around, looking for him once more and finds him on the floor again, sobbing halfway across the room from him. “Janus, please help me. Where are you?” he chokes out.

The other side just stares as he falls to his knees, helpless and remembering exactly what the brothers were going on about earlier. 

“I’m right here,” he whispers, but he knows that even if he yelled, the other wouldn’t hear him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How was that? 
> 
> I know that Janus and Patton kinda took over the chapter, but don't worry, the others will join them soon enough.
> 
> In case I didn't make it clear enough, what happened to Patton is that he became both blind and deaf instantaneously and no one can get within a few feet of him before he gets teleported out of their reach. (For my Heroes of Olympus fans, I used Calypso's curse with Polyphemus's blinding one.)
> 
> Since I have the next few chapters done, and, really, I want to post them all at once, I'll try to post daily. However, I am forgetful, and I have to work the next two days. So, we'll see.
> 
> Next Time: Who will Janus free next? What will happen when they get out? How will they reach to their second punishment? Also, a little more comfort and fluff to go with the hurt.
> 
> I just want to thank you again for reading and hope you come back again! Please give me any and all sorts of feedback, positive or negative, I truly just want to improve my writing. Stay safe guys, gals, and non-binary pals!


	4. Don't Run Away

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Janus is going to need more help is he wants to get through everything easier.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just finished work and signing up for my college courses, so what better way to celebrate than with a new chapter!
> 
> I added a few new tags, but nothing super important, just about some relationship dynamics. Don't worry. Everyone's going to be fine! *is looking up whether too much anxiety can cause a heart attack* i n t e r e s t i n g
> 
> Oh, just ignore that! *kicks under rug for future chapter*
> 
> Anywho, on with the chapter!
> 
> (TW: helplessness, blindness, deafness, crying, panic attack, claustrophobia, nyctophobia *minimal,* psychological torture, thinking their going to die/accepting death, bad habit/nail bitting * briefly mentioned,* violence *property damage,* disliking your past self, yelling, helplessness)

Janus knew that if he wanted to get out of here and save Patton, he’d need the others.

It’s not like he ever planned on leaving without them, but he hoped he’d be able to find an exit, then free the other, and they could all escape and regroup before coming up with a new rescue plan.

He looked back at the last two boxes. Obviously they must have Logan and Virgil. As Janus listened to Patton call out for him and stumble around blindly, knowing there was nothing he could do, he wondered what the other two were facing. 

And, if he would have to help get them out of it.

…

Virgil couldn’t breath. 

In reality, he knew he could, but he was panicking far too much to be able to.

He kept gasping for air, yet couldn’t get enough.

Sobs racked his body as he sat curled up in a corner.

He felt the walls closing in around him. He felt himself melting into the shadows.

He just wished to see the others one last time.

The room suddenly shook a bit. It startled the already terrified side, but he figured it was just the box finally about to collapse on him.

He closed his eyes and waited as it shook once more. Twice.

“Virgil?”

His eyes snapped up to meet a pair of snakelike ones.

“Janus!” he cried. The usually anxious side didn’t care about appearances when he threw himself into his old father figure’s arms and wailed.

“Shhh. You’re out now, stormcloud. I’ve got you,” Janus whispered methodically to the scared side, trembling in his arms. Virgil just cried harder.

The pair stay like that for a while. The only other sound in the room was Patton, though Virgil couldn’t hear him over his own noise.

Once the dark and gloomy side had gone down to just sniffling, Janus gently pushed him away to look him over and help wipe his tears. However, neither side got very far before they both froze.

“Janus, what happened to your--”

“Never mind that now,” the fully snake faced side, as Virgil just realized, cut him off, “what happened to _you_? Have you seen this?”

The anxious side tilted his head in confusion before shaking it. He raised his hand to his mouth to start biting his nail, a bad habit he knows he should quit, when he realized what the other was talking about.

His, now, typical purple flannel patched and black hoodie was replaced with his old black and gray one. His _other_ one.

Virgil reeled back, as though he could run away from it. That’s when his bangs fell further into view. They were no longer purple. They were so dark brown, they were almost black.

“Mirror,” was all he could choke out.

Janus ran off and came back with a mirror shard in his hand. “Careful,” he shakily whispered as he passed it over.

Virgil took one look at himself and dropped it, shattering it completely.

They had done it.

He was a dark side again.

…

Janus went up to the nearest box and decided to go for it.

He didn’t really know who he was hoping for since he would almost definitely need them both.

He reeled back as he’d done before and swung at it with all his might.

Except this time, the wall didn’t come down. It had barely even cracked.

It makes sense, everyone gets tired, especially exerting so much energy, but he still had one more box to go.

As he wound up again he prayed that this was Virgil’s box, and that he still remembered how to use his powers since Patton was completely out of the question and he didn’t think Logan had anything that was hard hitting in a physical sense.

The crack expanded, yet the wall remained. With a sigh, he prepared for one more swing. This really had better be Virge. It also definitely wasn’t because the snake wanted to see him and make sure his… fellow side was alright.

He gave it everything he had left as it came crashing down. Thank goodness.

He was met with black box that seemed slightly larger than himself with a tiny ball of a side in the furthest corner.

“Virgil?” Please, please, _please_ be Virgil.

A glowing mismatched pair of purple and green eyes snapped up to meet his, and he released a sigh of relief.

“Janus!” he cried. The deceitful side was suddenly met was an armful of Anxiety. He held on for dear life. After what just happened with Patton, he wasn’t sure if or when he would let go.

“Shhh. You’re... out now, stormcloud. I’ve got you.” There it was again. He tried to say, “You’re _okay_ now,” but he physically couldn’t, just like before. This was all forming a picture that he didn’t like the looks of. 

He pushed it from his head once more to comfort the trembling side in his arms. This was his number one priority right now.

After a while, and hearing a few too many of Patton’s cries as a reminder, Janus decides that he needs to make sure that Virgil is physically okay as well as mentally.

He gently pushed the other away to look him over and help wipe the stray tears. That’s when he finally noticed the twin’s little fashion choice for their resident worry wort. He could practically hear them laughing from here.

“Janus, what happened to your--”

“Never mind that now,” Janus cut off, he definitely didn’t want to go into that when there were more pressing matters at hand, “what happened to _you_? Have you seen this?”

The anxious side tilted his head to the side in confusion before shaking it. Of course he hadn’t. He was trapped in the dark. Maybe Janus could calm him down some more before--

He saw Virgil start to panic and he reel back, staring at his hand. Or, we can deal with this now while he is still emotionally compromised.

“Mirror,” Virge chokes out. Janus runs off to the box he emerged from and goes to grab a mirror shard from the ground. 

That’s when he sees it.

His gloves are gone.

… 

“No, no, no, no, no, no, no…”

“Just calm down a little Virge--”

“ ** _Calm down?!_** ”

The two froze, staring at each other.

Virgil snaps his mouth shut as he buries his head in his arms. He found a nice corner to curl up in after his little revelation.

Janus just sighs as he looks at the broken little side. “Virgil--”

“ **I can’t even control my powers anymore. You need to leave** ,” the other replies, muffled through his arms.

He just rolls his eyes, even if the other can’t see and crosses his arms. “I’m not going anywhere, stormcloud.”

“ **Tch, lie**.”

Janus just sits down as close to Virgil as he can. The other is radiating so much negative energy, it’s disrupting the shadows around him, and if the snake gets too close, well, let’s just say he had before and does want to repeat that experience even again if he can help it.

“I can’t lie right now.”

That catches the anxious side's attention. He raises his head slightly. “Huh?”

Janus waves one ungloved hand at him while keeping the other in view. “It seems like our favorite duo took my gloves and my ability to lie. It hasn’t been great.” He closed his eyes and let his head fall back against the wall behind him.

“Ouch. You almost sound like you have it worse than me,” Virge chuckled.

“And you sound a bit calmer.”

The other hummed. The shadows and negative aura seemed to be shrinking a bit as well.

“If you are actually doing better and are willing to, I could use some help.” The snakely side stood up and dusted himself off before reaching his hand out to help the other up.

The anxious side was obviously a bit reluctant. As he reached for the hand, he responded, “Depends on what you need me to do.”

Janus led the two to what had to be Logan’s box before explaining. “I don’t have enough energy to pull off the little stunt I did to break you out to get Logan out of here after using to get myself and Patton out.”

“Wait, Patton’s out!” Virgil immediately started looking around for the cardigan clad side.

The other side knew this could only end poorly. “Yes, but he’s--”

“Pat!” The hoodied side took off after the stumbling figment. Janus could only watch the trainwreck in motion.

“Virge?” Patton asked hopefully, turning in their direction.

Janus cursed the twins for doing that to such a nice person.

“Yeah Pat! I’m so glad you’re--” There it was. Virgil got too close and Patton disappeared, only to instantly appear as far from the other two as possible.

“Virgil, are you there?”

Janus sighed as he walked up to Virgil who dropped to his knees, eyes watering.

“Virgil? Janus?”

He kneeled down next to the other as the weeping side clung on to him for dear life once more.

“Kiddos, are you there?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What did you think?
> 
> I hope it's all still good. I know a lot of their "fears" or whatever you want to calls the are pretty easy to guess, but I believe I've put an interesting enough spin to keep you guys coming back.
> 
> Also, anxiety attacks /can't/ cause heart attacks, but they can eventually lead to strokes. I n t e r e s t i n g.
> 
> Anyway, next time: Will they free Logan in time before he breaks? What will be his second punishment? What will happen once they all are, mostly, reunited? And Remus is a little more clever than we think.
> 
> I just want to thank you again for reading and hope you come back again! Please give me any and all sorts of feedback, positive or negative, I truly just want to improve my writing. Stay safe guys, gals, and non-binary pals!


	5. You'll Never Feel The Same

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Logan learns a little more about sharing, and the twins move onto the final stage.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to get back to Logan sooner, but the others decided that they would hijack the plot and keep me from going back to him. It was actually a toss up whether Virgil or Logan would get out first, but when I started thinking about it, Virge made more sense plot wise.
> 
> Plus, I'm currently writing a very special scene for him next chapter ;)
> 
> Also, this whole story ended up waaaaay more Janus-centric than I originally intended. I planned on it being a much more even mix of character focus and perspectives. Personally, I'm not very surprised since he is my second favorite side. Just, the twins had the most beef with him, he had the easiest "punishments" to work through, I fine it really easy to write him, and I really like writing him.
> 
> Anyway, on to the story!
> 
> (TW: humiliation/being laughed at, knife mention *brief,* blood reference but no actual blood, psychological torture, helplessness, crying, violence, empathy, pain, vivid descriptions of anxiety, mild cursing, nauseation, weapons mentioned, yelling/rage, loss of consciousness, stuttering, talks of death, insecurities, talks of manipulation, defense mechanisms)

“Are you sure you’re feeling up to this?” Janus eyed the other wearily. Virgil wasn’t the most emotionally stable on a good day. That’s not saying he was the most unstable, far from it, but that still didn’t mean that he was doing great.

Virgil glanced at the wall before looking at the other and shook his head. “No, but he’s been suffering in whatever the twin’s made for him for way too long. Plus, we’ll need him to get out.”

Janus couldn’t argue with that.

The hoodie clad shook out his hand before taking a deep breath and focusing. 

“Here goes nothing.”

…

Logan wasn’t sure how much more he could take.

The longer he went on, the less the speech made sense and the more ridiculed he became.

At this point, all he could do was hope that the others would be able to free him from this figurative nightmare soon. Or maybe it was a literal one now. He couldn’t be sure. He was concentrating too much on messing up as little as possible to think about it.

Of course, as soon as he thought it couldn’t get worse, it did.

Out of nowhere, a knife came whizzing past his head, nicking his cheek. He doesn’t even want to think about how illogical it would be that there would be a knife in a classroom.

No matter. He’ll just heal himself and… 

Why isn’t it healing?

Logan can feel his heartbeat begin to race.

_Object permanence._

_He’s_ **_lost control_** _._

He feels something trickle down his cheek and touches it, afraid that he might be bleeding; however, when he pulls his hand away, it’s clear.

Oh. He’s crying. How odd.

That’s surprisingly more disconcerting to him than blood would have been.

Thankfully, he doesn’t have the chance to dwell on it since spikes of shadows come piercing through the back wall.

As the rubble and dust settled, he was relieved to see Janus and Virgil. Although, upon closer inspection, they didn’t seem to look like their usual selves. It probably had something to do with their “punishments.”

“ **Come on Logan**!” Virgil called.

He sighed, frustratedly. “I can’t. It seems as though they’ve stuck me up here.”

Janus just huffed and headed towards the other side. With two quick motions, he hooked each ankle and popped it from its place. “There. Now, let’s go.”

They headed to the giant hole in the wall. However, as Logan stepped through, his head, metaphorically, exploded in pain. He leaned against the nearest side to keep himself upright.

“Woah there Teach.” Apparently, it had been Virgil. "You don’t look so good.”

He wasn’t doing “good,” as the other has put it. His mind was figuratively screaming at him.

Except after the initial jolt of discomfort, he realized it wasn’t just his head that was in pain.

He was having worsening heart palpitations, sweaty palms, slight dizziness, uncontrollable shaking all across his body, and he could feel his eyes tearing up once more.

Oh. That’s what this was.

“Did you two, by any chance, get a second negative… thing happen to you after you got out of your boxes?” Logan asked out of breath.

The other two looked at each other. “Yeah. Is that what’s happening now? What are you feeling?” Janus asked in response.

“That’s exactly it,” he replied, “I’m _feeling_. I believe they gave me a very _extreme_ form of empathy.”

“Oh shit, **I’m so sorry Lo** \--” Virge started.

“Please stop. The more you worry, the worse I’ll feel,” Logan added, feeling very nauseated suddenly.

“ **Right** , right, sorry. I’ll try.” Virgil’s eyes started darting around the room, already feeling more anxious for his friend, yet knowing that would only make him more ill. “Here Janus, you should take him.” He tried to pass off the weakened side.

“Wh-uh-me?” the snake faced side sputtered, “Why me?”

Virge rolled his eyes. “In case his empathy is proximity based, he shouldn’t be held by the embodiment of anxiety.”

The other grumbled, “You’re right.”

“I’m sorry. What was that? I couldn’t hear you.”

“Just give me the nerd!” Janus started wrapping Logan’s arm around his neck and taking a few steps away from the other side.

“What do we do now?” Virgil asked the two.

“What indeed?” Remus repeated appearing behind the pair with his red double by his side.

“I think it’s time to move to the grand finale. Don’t you, brother?” Roman questioned.

“I believe you’re right.” Remus snapped his fingers, knocking the others out once more.

…

Janus woke on the ground yet again with his cane laying next to him. Luckily, this time his head wasn’t in pain. That much.

Although, as he looked around, that was probably intentional.

He was in a similar room as before with a few notable differences: 

First, the boxes were gone. 

Second, his other three rescuers were up in a sort of glass spectators box with Patton noticeably cut off from the others there as well. 

Lastly, the twins were standing a dozen feet or so away from him. 

With their weapons drawn.

…

Virgil woke up face to face with an unconscious Logan which, obviously, startled him. Which, in turn, startled the other. Right. Empathy.

“Sorry, Logan.”

“It’s fine. It’s a natural reaction and I would have expected nothing less. It’s not your fault.”

_That doesn’t mean I still don’t feel bad_ , he thought, but quickly tried to dissipate those feelings. He didn’t want to put those on Logan on top of everything.

“Is that Janus, Roman, and Remus?”

Virge whipped his head over to the giant window that he really should have paid attention to sooner. “I think it is,” he replied.

Janus seemed to be just getting up as well, but the twins… 

“ **NO**!” Virgil pounded his fist against the glass.

“Wh-what’s wrong, Virgil?” Logan asked. He was getting waves of anger and terror off of the other.

The anxious side turned towards him, eyes glowing and, unwittingly, bending the shadow. “ **They’re gonna kill him**.”

…

Janus grabbed his cane and stood up to his full height, staring the two halves of Creativity down.

“Well boys, to what do I owe the pleasure?” he asks as coolly as possible.

Both of his opponents’ faces split into wolfish grins, Remus’s slightly more deranged, but Roman’s was, unnervingly, a close second.

“We’re pretty sure you have an idea as to why you’re here,” Remus replies in a scarily calm tone.

“Well, what are you going to throw at me next?” He tries to sound bored, but he knows that it doesn’t work.

Roman fiddles with his sword for a moment before responding. “Guess.”

Janus tries to hold it in, but the truth sadly tumbles out, “I’m scared we’re going to fight.”

The two smirk while the snake tries to school his expression to hide his nervousness, embarrassment, and anger.

“I told you that the gloves would be his breaking point,” Remus says while staring his foe in the eye.

Janus tries not to squirm under the scrutiny, but ends up breaking eye contact first.

“That may be his ‘title,’ but he’s always used it as a defense mechanism to keep everyone and everything at arm’s length and to manipulate them for as long as I’ve known him. Even when he can’t lie, he tries to be as vague as possible, so it could be misinterpreted and he can use it against them.”

Startled that anyone could read him that well, he made eye contact once more.

“Yeah. Didn’t think I was smart enough to figure that out, huh?”

“Remus, I-- it’s--” He couldn’t think of the words. He honestly didn’t think anyone could figure that out.

“See. You can’t even get out the words because we both know I’m right.” He lets out a joyless laugh.

“No, Remus, that’s not it, I just-- the words-- I--”

“SHUT UP!” Remus screams as he takes a swing at Janus with his morning star.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How was that?
> 
> It was a little shorter than usual, but I figured you'd rather have it a bit shorter than padded with filler to make the typical word count. (Most chapters are in the 1500's and this one was in the 1300's, but so was the first chapter.)
> 
> I don't have much else to write here. 
> 
> It might be a bit longer for the next chapter since I'm moving into my dorm tomorrow and I don't have it finished yet. I'm already over 500 words into, though, so I'll probably end up finishing it before then anyway.
> 
> Also, because of that, I don't quite know all that's going to happen next time, but I can tell you that the fight will begin and Logan will reach his breaking point.
> 
> I just want to thank you again for reading and hope you come back again! Please give me any and all sorts of feedback, positive or negative, I truly just want to improve my writing. Stay safe guys, gals, and non-binary pals!


	6. Your Story Ends Tonight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Remus and Logan reach their breaking points.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is all very nice and foreboding. 
> 
> As a little bit of a follow up to the last one, I wanted to explain that sides can and can't die. If a side ever gets "killed" by another side, it would just be another situation like with creativity where they would split in two. So, if Remus would "kill" Janus, he would just be creating two "deceits." However, I think one would be deceit and one would become self preservation, but this is all just personal opinion, my writing choices for this fic, and my personal headcanons. (Can you have headcanons for your own fic?)
> 
> Anyway, wanted to keep this kinda short, but character's are also going to reference this in the coming chapter(s) and I couldn't smoothly work it into the story.
> 
> (TW: violence, weapons, crying, strong language, abandonment/walking out, talk of death *kinda,* hair pulling, panicking, yelling, mention of panic attacks, ***spoiler alert- stroke***)

Janus narrowly dodged Remus’s swing and rolled out of the way.

“Remus, can we _pleassse_ just talk this out?”

“I think we’re _way_ past ‘talking it out,’” Roman responded coldly from the position he took up next to his brother.

The snake faced side hissed softly. _I was talking to Remus_ , is what he was going to say if said person didn’t take another swing at him that he barely missed. 

“And like I’d want to give your silver tongue a chance to talk your way out of this. I’m not letting you go this time,” the green figment responded, readying himself to continue the fight.

“I don’t want to fight you!” Janus yelled desperately.

“Too bad!” the other screamed back, “This has been coming for a long time and I’m not going to waste this opportunity!” Remus charged him, head on. 

At the last second, the yellow side blocked the blow with his cane. “Look, I’m sssorry about what I sssaid. You know that I don’t think you’re evil,” he tried to say while holding the other off.

“You really think I believe that?” the “dark” half of creativity whispered to himself, but his opponent heard causing Janus to slip and fall, landing on his back.

Remus leveled his morning star just above the snake’s chest. “You really think that’s _all_ that this is about?” His laugh was unhinged and broken. “What about all that time you spent locking me away, pretending I didn’t exist? And all of those times you’d get to go up top, but I’d ask and you’d always make up some excuse? But then the scaly scrotum doesn’t get his way, so it’s time to send in the demon! Right?”

He puts the weapon on the other’s chest, not enough to do damage yet, but enough that he definitely feels it. “Then, you go behind my back and get yourself accepted when you _promised_ that we were all or nothing.” 

He blinked tears from his eyes. “You said that either we would both get accepted or we’d both leave those goody-two-shoes forever.” His voice cracked on the last word.

Janus’s mouth went dry. He was so focused on protecting Thomas, he didn’t pay attention to his other sides. His _friends_.

His best friend.

He swallowed, hard, before responding. “I’m so sorry Remus.” The other scoffed. “I was just trying to do what was right for Thomas--”

“Did you ever think about how _I_ might have felt?”

He could only shake his head.

Remus’s tears were flowing down his face, but he barely even noticed. “I was treated like a disease. I was put in a nice little box, a prison, and told to sit there with next to no explanation.” 

He drew a shuddering breath. “All I had was you and Virgil. When he left, guess what? I was hurting too. You decided to lock yourself up and scheme constantly to distract from it. What did I have? My horrid half of the imagination to rot in. Day in and day out. I would come to you, asking, _begging_ for you to do anything with me, to help me, and you refused.”

He shakes his head, as though it can wipe away the memories. “And then you finally let me out. I finally get to meet Thomas and see the others for longer than the quick glances they would give me in the halls. I think that, even if I’m seen as ‘dark’ or ‘bad,’ at least I’m seen, and I have you by my side."

"Then you go and get yourself accepted without me.” Remus starts to push on the morning star, digging it into the downed side’s skin. “I would get stuck with only myself and those awful things and thoughts that _clearly_ no one wants. Just like me apparently.”

He finally removes the weapon from Janus’s chest, only to raise it above his head, to strike. “So yeah, it’s much more than just calling me ‘evil’ and this has been pushed off long enough. I’ll probably eventually miss you, but you just need a reboot.”

Remus brought it down.

…

Virgil watched the three stand around and talk as he screamed and pounded on the glass.

Logan was in the corner, as far away from the anxious side as possible, trying to keep his empathy in check.

He was staring off into the middle distance, counting his breathing when his vision started to get blurry. Was someone’s anxiety affecting him again? Was this a side effect of the empathy? Was--

Water hit the shaking hands in front of his body.

Logan realized that he was crying for the second time that day. He looked at his compatriots, trying to figure out from whom these emotions were coming from.

But none of the others were crying or even close to tears.

Well, who could be giving him these feelings? Unless they were coming from…

“Me,” he muttered.

“ **What**?” Virgil looked over at him and noticed the other’s distressed state. “ **Woah Logan**. What’s going on?”

“I don’t know,” he whispered.

“What?” Virge moved closer to the other. He couldn’t have heard that correctly. Logan always knows what to do.

“ _I don’t know_ ,” he said forcefully as he fisted his hair in frustration. That was the last straw. 

“Ever since I was trapped in the damned box, I’ve been losing control of everything!” He started pacing, getting a wild look in his eye. There was no stopping him now. “I couldn’t control my own stupid body when the twins stuck my legs to the floor and forced me to give that wretched speech to people who _weren’t listening_ to me and would _laugh_ at me. I can’t help control the situation down there and help stop them. And, I can’t even control these fucking emotions that I’m _not even supposed to have_! I’m Logic for crying out loud! I don’t need them and they just get in the way, obviously, and I should be able to figure this out!”

He leaned his back against the nearest wall and slumped down. “ _Why_ can’t I figure this out?” He was on the verge of tears once more, but refused to let them fall. They were pointless and just wasting his body’s water.

“Because emotions don’t make sense.” Logan looked up slightly and saw that Virgil had sat down in front of him, cross legged.

“Everything has a reason.”

“Falsehood.”

Logan jolted further back into the wall in surprise at his typical line being thrown in his face. It gave Virge a slightly satisfied smirk for catching the other off guard.

“Why do you think you and Patton butt heads so often?”

“We’ve never done--”

“It was a rhetorical question and an idiom, idiot.”

Logan wrinkled his nose at the rude name but quieted.

“As Patton has said, he’s at the core of a lot of Thomas’s feelings. That causes friction between you two since he does things that don’t make any logical sense because it was emotionally driven. Like, when Patton, Roman, and Thomas had trouble getting over… that guy, you couldn’t understand it personally since it was pushed by desire and heart rather than tangible evidence. While, yes sometimes facts can help solve emotional problems, sometimes a feeling is just a feeling.”

“But that is a redundant statement that doesn’t make any sense.” Logan looked down at his knees again.

Virgil sighed. “Think about Remus. His intrusive thoughts have no real value or meaning behind it. Emotions can be like that too. They have no real reason, or you can’t find the clear reason because of one thing or another. It doesn’t matter. And yeah, it sucks. It’s shitty as hell, but if anyone can help you through this, it’d probably be me.”

Logan turned towards his fellow side. “What do you mean?”

He shrugged. “I get some of the most random emotions in bursts of anxiety for no reason and I’d be able to help talk you through this better than Patton.”

The logical side had a small, fragile smile. “That makes sense.”

Virgil smiled back and stood up. He extended a hand to the other.

Logan took it firmly and helped himself up.

The two grinned at each other before the newly emotional side started stumbling and swaying while clutching his head.

“ **Woah! Logan, are you okay**?” Virgil asked, terrified, as he helped his friend back to the floor.

“I-I can’t… Wh? Leg…” was all the logical side could get out.

The anxious side had noticed that the other’s left leg seemed to be giving out on him as he was being set down.

“ **Logan, buddy, can you focus on my face or my voice**?” He tried to sound calm, but his powers were still on the fritz.

Logan tried to look at the other’s face, yet he kept rubbing his left eye. It was so blurry.

“ **Okay, I don’t really know what’s going on. But as logic, if you could tell me or help me figure it out, that’d be great**.” Virge started grasping and twisting at his hoodie sleeves to help alleviate the stress. It wasn’t working.

By now, the more book smart side had figured out what it was, he just couldn’t communicate it. 

“S-s…” 

“ **Do you know what this is**?”

“St-s-St…” Virgil looked down and noticed the other gently rubbing his hoodie sleeve. That just confused him more. Why do something weird like that at a time like this?

“ **Could you sign me it**?” All the side’s had learned basic ASL to help Virgil since he can sometimes go nnonverbal during panic attacks or times of extreme stress.

Logan signed yes. 

S… 

T… 

R… 

O…

K…

E… 

Virgil’s eyes widened in a panic. He knew nothing to help the other and clearly the logical side wouldn’t be able to talk him through anything.

He knew what he would have to do.

He quickly scooped up the hurting side and moved him to the farthest corner of the room.

He then moved up towards the glass.

Virgil took a deep breath.

“ **For Logan**.”

His eyes began to glow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know if you can tell, but I'm not the best at writing fight scenes, but I am pretty good at writing angsty monologues.
> 
> Also, me ending two chapters with cliffhangers about Janus potentially getting killed? More likely than you think.
> 
> Also also, this chapter was almost 1700 words long, so I think that helps make up for the previous shorter chapter.
> 
> Also also also, if you don't know what scrotum means PLEASE don't look it up! It's another word for a part of male private parts. I just Googled "body parts that start with s" and figured that Remus would probably go with the grossest one.
> 
> As for the next chapter, I'm about halfway done with writing it, but I'm about to move into my dorm in a few hours so I'm not sure if I'll have time either today or tomorrow to finish it up. I probably will, I just wanted to give you a heads up just in case.
> 
> What I can tell you about the next chapter: We get a few heart to hearts and everyone reunites! ...Just not under the best circumstances. 
> 
> I just want to thank you for reading and hope you come back again! Please give me any and all sorts of feedback, positive or negative, I truly just want to improve my writing. Stay safe guys, gals, and non-binary pals!


	7. I'm Probably Gonna Die

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some new and... interesting information gets brought to light.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For a while, this was labeled as "Forgiveness, can you imagine?"
> 
> Read through the chapter and then then tell me if that is accurate :)
> 
> This one is also short, so I apologize, but we're getting close to the end! It's bitter sweet, but it's not over yet! We've got a few more things to work through before then.
> 
> (TW: weapons, violence, talk of death, crying, talks of manipulation *apologizing,* strong language, yelling, arguing)

Roman stopped his brother’s morning star with his own sword.

“I _never_ agreed to kill anyone! You said we’d rough him up a bit, _that’s it_.”

“What? Afraid to get your hands dirty, Princey?" Remus retorted.

"I don't think anyone deserves to go through what we had to," Roman responds firmly. "Not even him."

The Duke's grip slackens a bit on his weapon. He remembered how horrible it was when they were first separated. The pain of coming into being. The feeling like you'll never be as good as the one before you was or even could have been.

The green side slowly lowers his morning star as Janus scrambles to his feet.

"I… I went too far. Sorry," he muttered to the ground.

"No," the other replied, "I didn't go far enough. I was a terrible friend to you and should have done better. I know I can never fully make up for it, but I'd like to do what I can, starting with this: I'm sorry Remus."

Something in the duke breaks and he breaks down sobbing. Janus just silently opens his arms and the other charges into them.

Roman tries to awkwardly back away from the two until they both stick out an arm and put him in as well.

“I’m sorry to you too Roman,” the snakely side whispers, “I shouldn’t have gone there and I didn’t really mean it. I’m also sorry for ever manipulating you or getting you to do my bidding. I was treating you as a means to an end instead of the valuable side that you are.”

The fanciful side looks down to double check that the other didn’t somehow steal his gloves back. He can hardly see his bare hands through the tears in his eyes.

Janus just gently holds the two crying halves of creativity in his arms, rubbing gentle circles in their backs, and telling them that he will honestly make sure that everything will be alright soon.

They stay that way for a few minutes until a loud crash draws their attention.

They see Virgil shattering the viewing box that he and Logan were being kept in before grabbing said side and using the shadows as a slide to get them to the ground safely.

“ **Guy come quick! Logan needs help!** ” Virgil yells, carrying the other and running towards the trio.

The three end up meeting him roughly halfway where Roman has made Patton appear, seeing and hearing everything.

“Patton!” Janus practically leaps on the other side, throwing his pride to the wind. It’s already almost gone after the day he’s had.

“Janus! I’m so glad you’re here! I couldn’t see or hear and--”

“ **I’m sorry Patton, I’m glad you’re back and okay, but we have to take care of Logan right now** ,” Virgil said as he gently laid the unwell side on the hospital bed Remus conjured. 

“Oh my… What happened to Logan? What’s wrong?”

The anxious side sighed. “ **The short version is he was given an extreme form of empathy** \--” he glared at Remus who was completely unfazed while Roman, next to him, squirmed “-- **and apparently it must have been too much for his body to handle since he said that he’s having a stroke**.”

Everyone was silent after that and the twins locked eyes for a beat. “Shit,” Remus said, breaking it.

“ **That’s all you have to say**!” Virge yelled at him.

The green twin turned towards him. “You think we give him that on purpose?”

“ **I think you’re an asshole who doesn’t know his limits** ,” the other side replied, getting closer to the other.

“Alright children, arguing about all of this stuff isn’t going to help Logan,” Janus said as he stepped between the two, trying to defuse the tension a little bit.

Virgil hissed quietly before both huffed and turned away. Knowing he wasn’t likely going to get anything useful from that duo, he turned towards the red twin. “Roman, what happens to us here isn’t permanent and isn’t going to affect Thomas in any way. Right?”

The prince opened his mouth before closing it and getting a very dark and nervous expression.

“Roman?” Patton questioned over the yellow side’s shoulder, “Kiddo, he’s right, right?”

“Riiiiiiight?” the creativity side responded, completely unsure.

The three currently conversing silently turned towards the other creative side.

He looked as white as a sheet. That wasn’t a good sign. “We didn’t think that far ahead and we weren’t expecting this!” he blurted out.

The embodiment of self preservation’s eyes went wide before he turned back towards the logical side, trying to tune out the bickering that had started once more. Being that, self preservation, he knew a little bit about medical situations. Not as much as the currently hurting side, but enough that he could do _something_.

“Logan, can you try to smile for me?” he asked as calmly as he could.

The other side did, but it was lopsided with the left half lower than the right. That wasn’t a good sign.

“Can you lift your arms to shoulder height for me?” he asked next.

Logan complied and again, the left arm was lower than the other.

“What’s going on over here? How’s he doing?” Patton whispered to Janus from where he had been silently watching.

Even though the intelligent side had probably already figured it out, Janus didn’t want him to hear it and confirm it, so he waved the moral side over a few feet before explaining.

“It seems that the stroke affected his left side and since he is one of the biggest contributors to Thomas’s left brain functions, there’s no telling the damage it could be doing to him if the twins aren’t actually containing this.”

Patton gasped, but that wasn’t even the worst part. He kept that to himself.

Janus didn’t know how to fix it.

But he was going to do everything he could to figure out how.

…

  
  


“ **How could you do something like this to him** **_and Thomas_** **, Remus**?!”

“I told you, we weren’t thinking and didn’t know this would fucking happen!”

“ **You knew exactly what you were doing and stop trying to drag Roman down with you! I know this is all your fault**!”

“I’m telling you: I. Didn’t. Do. It!”

“ **That’s a complete load of bullshit and we both know it** \--”

“ _It was me_!”

Virgil whipped around and stared at the prince. “What?”

“I…,” he swallowed, “I made Logan’s and Patton’s… challenges, punishments whatever you want to call them. Remus did yours and Janus’s. But… we never meant for this.”

Virgil couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He locked eyes with the other side while holding back tears. “Then what did you **mean to do**?”

Roman looked away from him, unable to stand the heartbreaking sight and glanced at his brother, trying to find the right words.

Remus took over for him. “I keep trying to tell you Virge, we just wanted to scare you all a bit and rough Janus up for what he did to us, before I changed that last bit on fancy pants here. We never meant for things to get this out of hand or to actually hurt any of you.”

  
“ **It’s a little late for that Dukey**.”

“I’m so sorry-- _we’re_ so sorry, Virgil,” Roman pleaded as he tried to grab the emo’s hand, but he pulled away.

  
“ **See what happens to Logan and apologize to him.** **_Then_** **, we’ll see what I have to say to you**.” With that, the hoodie clad side walked away, leaving the brothers in pain and alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, I made the whole "Forgiveness" title before I wrote the end if you can't tell. Unless you wanna read it sarcastically? Then it could work.
> 
> Anyway, I haven't even started chapter eight yet, so I'm hoping to get it out by tomorrow, but it might be later. (However, comments fuel me, and some of you guys comment so religiously that I literally get worried if it's past your usually time to comment and you haven't. You truly mean the world to me, like you honestly don't know.)
> 
> Also, I didn't even think I'd get this far. I typically get too bored with a story to continue it, if my three other wip on this site don't make it obvious, but this is the longest story I've written here and I still want to continue! I legitimately don't know how to end this though is my problem! I never thought I would actually post this or that I'd be motivated enough to get to an ending, so after about halfway through chapter five, I've been writing as I go and not following any plan. I know a small part about know I want to, but I don't know what I'm going to do for a majority of my plot going forward. 
> 
> That being said, I want you all to comment ideas, please, to help me! If I like them, I'll credit you, but I just could really use some help. I really don't want to abandon this and I don't think you all want me to either, but I'm not sure how much further I can go on my own.
> 
> So please, please, PLEASE comment any and all ideas you have for this that you'd like me to do and I might just pick it! I know this is a bit unorthodox, but I think it'll be fun!
> 
> I just want to thank you again for reading and hope you come back again! Please give me any and all sorts of feedback, positive or negative, I truly just want to improve my writing. Stay safe guys, gals, and non-binary pals!


	8. You're Stuck Here Everyday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Janus makes a plan... eventually.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It took a couple of days, but I got it! And, I'd like to thank TymberLaine and The_Nerdy_Comic_Book_Gal for helping inspire this chapter and some of the plot moving forward! (I don't know how to tag the accounts, but they are awesome and comment on almost every chapter if you want to find them.)
> 
> Instead of overloading the front with notes you probably don't care that much about, I'll save them for the end and let you get right into the story.
> 
> (TW: stroke, insecurities, swearing, Remus being Remus: mention of murder, sexual implications, unconsciousness, helplessness, hint at car accident *nothing graphic,* yelling, shoving, threats)

Janus moves quickly over towards the twins with about half an idea ready. 

On his way over, he brushes past a very distraught looking Virgil. His immediate reaction is to stop what he’s doing and take care of his pseudo-son, but he has to keep going to help the dying side instead.

He was so focused on the task that he didn’t realize he had a shadow until he stopped short in front of the creative pair and was almost run over by the moral side. “Sorry Janus,” is mumbled into his shoulder.

He just nods his head in response before focusing on the other two. “Roman, Remus, can you just take away Logan’s stroke? You were able to take away Patton’s blindness and deafness, surely you can do this.”

The brothers looked at each other before shaking their heads solemnly. “I could only take away Patton’s stuff because I gave it to him,” Roman replied to the ground. “We didn’t give Logan this, it’s a negative reaction to something we did, so we can’t change it. Trust us, we tried.”

“We did take back the empathy thing though,” Remus added, trying to make things sound a bit more positive.

Janus huffed like someone punched all of the air out of him. That was the best idea he had.

“If only he could actually communicate with us. The only one smart enough or who knows enough about this would be Logan,” Patton sighed.

The snakely side froze. “Say that last sentence again, Patton.”

“The only one smart enough or who knows enough about this would be Logan?”

A lightbulb went off in his head as he looked back at the creative sides. “Can you get us out of here at all?”

The twins looked at each other. “I mean, I’m not sure if we could get everyone out at once. And are you sure it would be a good idea to move Logan when he’s the unwalking dead?” Remus replied.

Janus hissed softly to himself, annoyed. “Not him Remussss. Could either of you get  _ me _ into Logan’s room and back?”

The other conversation members finally caught up to him.

Remus looked like he was weighing the idea in his mind. “Technically, yes, but I know nothing about pocket protector’s room so there is no telling where you’d end up.”

“Why can’t you just drop me in the light side living room?”

“Do you really think he left the door unlocked?”

“He didn’t,” Patton and Roman responded at once. Wait, Roman…

“Roman, could you send me there and back?” Janus asked the prince.

The fanciful side refused to make eye contact. “Well yeah…”

The other looked him over skeptically. “What? What’s wrong?”

Roman just shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts. “Nothing. Let’s do this.” He started taking long strides away from the others to prepare.

Janus turned to Remus. “What’s wrong with him?”

The other brother just shook his head. “Virgil just got in his head. His self confidence isn’t the best. He isn’t really feeling very princely right now.”

“If I get hurt because that emo got him all broody, make sure to kick Virgil’s ass for me,” Janus huffed.

“Language!” Patton chastised.

The yellow and black side sauntered off so the others didn’t see the smile on his face.

…

As the pair watched Janus to go join Roman, Patton turned to the other creativity and asked, “Can you do me a favor?”

Remus looked at the other and laughed. “Depends, who do you want me to kill?”

The other cringed a bit. “No, no it’s not like that--”

“Ahhh, I see, well, I didn’t think you were in to my type would have seen you more as--”

“Definitely not that!”

Remus just shrugged. “You probably couldn’t have handled me anyway.”

Patton shook his head, determined  _ not _ to fall down that hole. “I was wondering if you could send me to Thomas?”    
  


The darker half of creativity sobered quickly.

“I don’t want to leave any of you, especially Logan right now, for very long, but I just need to make sure he’s alright.”

“...And if he’s not?” The green side quietly asked. 

That was one of the drawbacks of being “intrusive thoughts.” Once he thought of something, especially something dark or bad, it wouldn’t go away.

He started imagining Thomas half dead on the floor and unconscious with no one around and nothing any of the figments could do. He saw Thomas losing control of the entire left side of his body like Logan and falling to the ground, trying to use his good half to crawl towards a phone to call for help. He was seeing Thomas behind the wheel when the effects started kicking in and--

Patton put his hand on Remus’s shoulder, bringing him back to reality. “Thomas will be okay. I know that you and Roman care about him and wouldn’t let anything bad happen to him. I just need to make sure he isn’t in distress.”

He didn’t have to be Deceit to know that the father figure was lying, but it did make him feel better. “Thanks Patton.”

He smiled at the green side. “You’re welcome kiddo.” The nickname made the other smile. “Now, can you help me check on Thomas?” Remus nodded before getting to work.

He created a portal of sorts that would lead Patton directly to Thomas’s living room once he stepped through. “All ready.”

“Thanks Remus,” he said as he stepped through.

“Thomas!”

…

Virgil walked away from the twins, needing to cool off. As he wandered a bit, he noticed no one was by Logan, so he moved over to the pained side.

“Hey Logan, you okay?”

The logical side tapped the other's arm once.

“Is that a yes?”

Tap.

“Well that’s pretty clever.”

Tap.

“Did you come up with it?”

Logan smirked a little as he tapped once. Virgil smiled back, happy that he got at least a bit of a good reaction out of the other.

He looked up and noticed that Patton and Janus seemed to have vanished and the twins were each in a corner of the room. He could feel his anxiety rising.

“Did anyone tell you where they were going?”

Logan frowned slightly and double tapped. Virgil expected that. Of course the others wouldn’t want the other to worry while also in pain. Ugh! If he wasn’t being his angsty little emo self, he might have noticed and would still be in the loop!

“It’s fine. They know what they’re doing.”

Virgil wasn’t sure if he was reassuring Logan or himself.

…

“Now, I’ve never done this before, so I’m not quite sure how this is gonna go.”

“You’re telling me this _now_?!” the self preservation side practically screamed.

“Do you have another idea to save Logan?” Roman retorted.

Janus quieted after that.

"I've seen Remus do it dozens of times, and I've been on your end of it. I won't be able to contact you and vise versa, so I'm going to have to leave the portal open; however, I don't know how long I can do that, so try to make it quick."

"I just need to grab a few medical books, that's all."

Roman nodded as he got ready. "Good." He slowly opened up a portal that would lead to the logical side’s room.

“Wait!”

The creative side jumped and dropped the portal. “What?!”

“Are you sure this is safe?”

“Oh for the love of Disney!” Roman quickly opened a portal and pushed the other inside.

Janus stumbled into the room, trying to regain his footing. He huffed and fixed his clothing.

He swiftly scanned the, thankfully, well organized room for the bookshelf. Even though Janus had never been in Logan’s room before, he was fairly confident that the bookworm would have one.

And he did. The snakely side promptly looked over the selves to find the medical section. He then just grabbed the first three books that’s index mentioned strokes.

Afterwards, he turned tail and leaped back through the portal. Roman closed it behind him, panting. “Did you get them?”

Janus grabbed the prince’s sash to make the other look him in the eye. “You push me again, and I’ll maim you,” he hissed.

The fanciful side nodded his head rapidly before the other side released him.

“And yes, I believe I have what we need to save Logan.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope that was pretty good. This one was pretty hard to write just because it was a lot of just trying to get certain characters in certain places or getting certain things. I'm much better at writing emotional stuff. That was part of the reason it took so long to post.
> 
> Also, I'm still finishing moving into college which has just been reeking havoc on my mental health. And writing helps make me feel better, but my brain decided that instead I should start writing a brand new AU instead of working on the, like, twenty other projects that I've already started. (So if you like Moceit, Royality, humor, angst, musicals, and Janus-centric ones, stay tuned!)
> 
> Anyway, I finally figured out how the I want the story to go from here on out! While I don't know for sure how many chapters are left since I haven't written anything else at the moment, my best estimate would be only two or three more chapters. We're in the home stretch! I do have a few ideas for one shots that would be related to this that I might still do if people are interested.
> 
> Yet again, I'm not sure when the next one will be out, but hopefully within the next few days.
> 
> I just want to thank you for reading and hope you come back again! Please give me any and all sorts of feedback, positive or negative, I truly just want to improve my writing. Stay safe guys, gals, and non-binary pals!


End file.
